weed control chemicals advice

hi there

i am after a very strong weed killing chemical. The reason for this is my dad has gone over seas for a while and told me to keep an eye on the garden etc which i have been doing, mowing etc.. But ther is this certain spot on the side of our house i never looked at because it never used to have anything but now there is all weed spreaded from neighbours and now it is fully growing on my side...

I require a chemical that will kill both weeds, plants of that kind as there is wierd plants just growing! looks like im going to haev to use a super soaker gun loaded with the chemical.. just too much!

Something strong would be good.... Money is no problem!

I am from VICTORIA by the way so would appreciate all advice on what to buy and where to buy.

Amitrole - kills everything - kills the ground for a year. Comes in a 5 litre concentrate or box of powder. Or you could use the industrial version of roundup - powder - not very expensive and deadly to all living plants... including gorse if hit a couple of times. Very organic farmer me!

If Money is no problem do yourself a big favour and look up a pest and weed control contractor in the phone book and get them to do it.
They will know the right chemical to use and the right amount. Get a couple of quotes.
If you dont know what youre doing .... your decription of using a soaker gun doesn't persuade me otherwise, you can do yourself and others harm.

If you find that you can't afford a contractor first get the weed identified then come back and ask advise as to what chemical is required.

Good old Roundup. Kills nearly everything.

I'm with Keith. There's few weeds that a couple of hits of roundup won't kill.

I've used Amitrol in the past and the big thing with it is that it is residual in the soil so nothing will grow there for ages.

What Wood Butcher and Keith said.

Bantox - kills everything for a year.

With roundup you have to keep spraying everytime new seeds come up.

Couple of doses of Roundup (actually use a cheaper brand glycophosphate) followed up by a quick spray when the weeds show their heads.

Should end up only needing to spray once in early spring and once in early summer each year.

As you obviously do not know what you are doing do not use a residual chemical.
Glyphosate used properly should do the job, you can buy it ready mixed you don't need to hose it on just wet the leaves to the point of run off, and do a follow up in a month if necessary.

David

Spray it once and put 10cm of mulch on it. No more weeds.

Guys I dont want to seem like a d!@khead but even Glycophosphate can be dangerous to oneself, the environment and wildlife if mishandled. It can cause some serious skin problems in humans.
I know these things are readily available but the person using them should be clued in enough to know what is considered a safe method of handling and application of the stuff.
When someone suggests that they are going to use a water pistol to apply a Schedule 5 poison I think that a warning may be the best advise.
Sorry if I sound pompous, just wouldnt like to see young VNMan get into trouble

No insult intended but you sound clueless cobber. My advice? Aerial spraying or buy a goat. If you DO spray, don't do it on a windy or rainy day for obvious reasons.

PS: the bonus with the goat is that you can eat the bugger when she's done the job. ;)

Try this 50% table salt 50% vinigar in watering can, mix it up and just pour it on works like roundup

Thanks alot everyone, i aprpeciate all the help and advice here.. seems like there are some good chemicals out on the market.
Seems like some of these can be very harmful to humans etc.. Well my neighbour has a dog. Should i inform them of me using weed chemical(s) and tell them to keep there dog away from that area for a few days or weeks?? Any advice on that?

Also where would I be able to find a majority of these chemicals? Bunnings? Kmart??

I was thinking about the contractor bit but i prefer to do all this myself and probably learn at same time when i get to the stage of looking after my own house.

Thanks again

dear oh dear!

Dicamba son........with a good wetting agent, by good i mean somethe like pulse or brushoff.......min 1/5 hr of sunlight required.

That will really knockem off..........shouldnt hurt the dog, but hey, it was probly his crap that made em come up in the first place :D

Shedhand got it right. Fly it on. 2-4-5T is said to be an excellent defoliant!

Shedhand got it right. Fly it on. 2-4-5T is said to be an excellent defoliant! MurrayD99...


Anyone hearing the word orange around here??? and who is that agent!:D

Pete
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Originally Posted by maglite

Dicamba son........with a good wetting agent, by good i mean somethe like pulse or brushoff.......min 1/5 hr of sunlight required.

That will really knockem off..........shouldnt hurt the dog, but hey, it was probly his crap that made em come up in the first place :D

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Great advise Maglite.
Dicamba is around 4 times more toxic orally and around 8 times more toxic dermally than Glycophoshate.

I had a German shepperd on a site once that rolled in the grass or ate it after we had sprayed with Roundup that lost most of its hair on its back and broke out in a very bad rash.

So if Dicamba has a dermal LD50 rating 8 times that of Glycophoshate it may just hurt the dog.

I really dont want to lecture but .....on the subject of poisonous chemical you shouldn't give advise unless it is your field of expertise or at least be familiar with the Australian Government publication A Manual Of Safe Practice In The Handling And Use of Pesticides.

Just because these products can be bought from Bunnies doesn't mean that they are not dangerous and it is illegal to use a pesticide for a purpose that it is not registered for.
That means you must at least know the name of the weed you are trying to eradicate.
Also residual chemicals really dont have a place in the urban environment.

Its funny how we are all touchy feely about water conservation and environmental management but we are all so lax about handling these chemicals. Its probably because we dont see the harm that they cause, and by the time side effects appear it was so long after the fact that we dont associate the symptoms with the cause.:rolleyes:

I'm off for my DDT cocktail, sorry about the rant.

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Originally Posted by Shedhand

PS: the bonus with the goat is that you can eat the bugger when she's done the job. ;)

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dont let Al hear you say that....:D:D

I would stick with roundup - get a cheap version, about 9 bucks for a litre and a litre will last a long time. Read the precautions and follow them - although a couple of my agricultural scientist customers tell me that glyco is basically very safe for humans. The with-holding period for stock is simply to let the stuff do its work within the plant - if a farmer sprays his paddock then lets the cows eat it immediately, the glyco does not get a chance to penetrate the plant.
The most harmful component is, I believe, the actual carrier for the glyco, which is very bad for aquatic creatures.
The other thing about glyco - spray it on, leave it for 3 days, then root the plants out by hand. The root-release mechanism of glyco has well and truly swung into action by then and the weeds will pull easily. Bits of root left in the ground will die off. You may need to re-spry after about 21 days if there are any weeds that have been missed. The stuff starts to work within 3 hours and had pretty well got into the plant within 6 hours.

I'm not trying to be a nazi, but the name is Glyphosate.

Depending on what you are killing Dicamba may be of no use as it is a selective herbicide.

Have you thought about digging the stuff out. It's in a suburban area, surely there can't be that much.

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Originally Posted by outback

I'm not trying to be a nazi, but the name is Glyphosate.

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Grovel beg snivel .... Sorry I did a google to check my spelling and guess what.... I am not alone in being wrong.......:p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by maglite

shouldnt hurt the dog, but hey, it was probly his crap that made em come up in the first place :D

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hahah. thats a good point though

so can anyone tell me where i can buy some roundup or the other chemicals stated in the other posts??

cheers

If you are trying to kill the weeds but leave the grass unaffected use Grazon it will kill any woody type weeds/plants but not the grass and as the name implies it is safe for animals, I don't remove the stock from the paddock when useing it.

Arch.

vnman i'd be using the 'weeds.org.au' site to identify the plant before doing anything.
There are plenty of chemicals out there with a few already mentioned.
The problem can occur if the wrong chemical or too light a dose is used that the plant will come back stronger next growing season.
A typical example is with blackberry when you don't apply the correct dose. The root mass the next year is huge compared to the leaf area which takes in the poison and you have to let it grow for several years to be able to have enough leaf back to absorb the amount of poison needed.

If the plant is connected back through a root system back into your neighbours i'd be careful about being sued. They may love it growing on their side of the fence !

Finally if you go for aerial i'd go chopper rather than fixed wing it'll be cheaper.

Personally I am a little bit shy of mixing the vinegar with salt, especially if spraying around the house. Having a dog, and needing to poison some weeds in the backyard, I spent quite a bit of time researching using vinegar as a poison. Apparently, adding a bit of dishwashing liquid to the vinegar will make it stick to the leaves better, and spray for two or three days.

I used straight vinegar, and it killed the weeds in my driveway.
Boiling water will also kill weeds.

The reason I worry about adding salt is the potential for build up in the soil, and near buildings possibly salt damp?

The dishwashing liquid acts as a wetting agent (or surfactant) - that is, it cuts through any waxy coating on the leaves and allows for better uptake up of the "poison" by the plant.

Dishwasher rinse aid is supposed to be another good one to use (as a wetting agent).

Stick with Roundup or another brand of glyphosate, follow the pack directions re safety (washing hands, etc) & mixing concentration, spray at lowish pressure (high pressure causes more vapour that can drift), don't spray when dead still (vapour hangs in air) when too breezy (mist will drift) - somewhere in between will be OK. Don't spray when rain expected within 12 hours (less if the glypho has a surfactant).

Don't overcomplicate it, glyphosate would be the most widely used weedkiller in Aus, readily available from safeway, bunnings & everywhere else. Used sensibly & per directions it is entirely suitable for what you're doing.



Cheers...............Sean

cheers for the help ppl, i have bought a 3 litre bottle of ready to use glyphosate at bunnings today after work and applied it all over the weeds.. i took a few pictures of the weeds to see what you people reckon whether the chemical would be strong enough to kill all this?

after they are dead i hope to remove all the #### and then put new bark and stuff.. gota try to make it how it used to be or my dad will pull weeds out of my head when hes back! ahah

http://members.optusnet.com.au/djaxi/weed1.jpg


http://members.optusnet.com.au/djaxi/weed2.jpg

http://members.optusnet.com.au/djaxi/weed3.jpg

would i need something stronger? i couldnt find roundup so hope this stuff works.

I have'nt tried straight vinigar but I will give it a go, i too was concerned about the salt, but thought it might have less salt than the glyphosate wich is basicly an industrial salt

Vnman, Before you use a chemical for the first time, look up the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) on the web. If you have never read the one for Glyphosate, give it a go. The data shows that you would need to ingest more than your stomach can hold to run a 50% chance of karking it. Salt is more toxic. That doesn't mean you can spray it willy-nilly. I suggest that if you don't use it professionally, get the pre-mix version (3.6 g/L) from the shelf at your hardware and READ THE LABEL.
Regards, Mossywun:)

Vmann, I was too late, but I hope you read the label.
Mossywun

vmann, roundup will clean up all those weeds including the fern as you have bought the stuff already it.s proberly to late but a litre of glyphosphate is around $25 and will make up 100 litres of spray so you would have plenty for future use. buying it premixed is a very expensive way of getting it, I know it's a rip off as I buy the concentrate 20 litres at a time which equates to approx $8 a litre.

Hope this helps for future use

Arch

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Originally Posted by Munga

a litre of glyphosphate is around $25 and will make up 100 litres of spray so you would have plenty for future use.
Arch

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Arch, about $8 at Bunnings.


Peter.

vnman, it'll do that job fine, glyphosate is a translocated herbicide which means when you spray it on the foliage it travels throughout the plant and kills it. It will kill all that stuff.

You will notice the weeds start yellowing off in 5 - 7 days, the grasses are usuall first to show. All the weeds can be pulled out (if you want :D ) after a week, any that you miss when weeding will still die off provided you sprayed their foliage.


Cheers.................Sean

thanks ppl yeah i hope this works, first time gardener so i am excited :D haha.
thanks for those advices and tips. if this stuff aint any good i think roundup will be next.. il give it 2 weeks and see how i go as the glyphosate label says not to touch them for 2 weeks after spraying.
thats a long time. :confused:

vn, Roundup is just one of the brands of glyphosate, all things being equal you would get the same results with the glypho you have already applied.

One week will be fine, the chemical moves through the plant's system quite quickly, particularly at this time of year (warm weather, rapid growth).


Cheers........Sean

Here is a question, I just found out my neighbour "accidently" sprayed one of my gum saplings (only about 1.6m high) in the front yard with a glypho spray:eek: :mad: about 10 days ago. It was one of those expensive hybrids from the garden shop which until today was going great guns.

I looked at it today and it is starting to wilt and the gum nuts which were about to bloom have gone brown and died. I have applied miracle grow and seeweed emulsion to try to save it. How long should I give it before it dies or recovers?:o